It has become more and more popular to install drop ceilings to cover mechanical trades in ceiling areas in commercial buildings and the like. In the typical installation process, a series of rods are secured to a commercial ceiling at predetermined sites. The rods are precut to a desired length to allow for the installation of tracks or hangars for suspending the ceiling tiles in place a uniform distance from the remote overhead surface. Quite often the distance from the ground to the remote surface ranges anywhere from 9 to 16 feet, even greater in commercial applications. This distance can make the installation process extremely burdensome.
In a typical installation process, the installer climbs up on a ladder and pre-drills a hole for an anchor, such as a Sammy Super Screw™ anchor. This usually involves maneuvering a power drill around a number of mechanical trades, such as duct work, steam pipes, plumbing, electrical conduits, etc., and pre-drilling a hole. Next, the installer climbs down the ladder and mounts the anchor into the drill. He then climbs back up the ladder and again manipulates the power drill in the spaces between the plumbing, duct work, etc. so that the anchor tip is lined up with the pre-drilled hole, and operates the drill to screw the anchor into the ceiling. Then, the installer steers the power drill back out through the spaces between the duct work and plumbing, gets down off of the ladder, picks up a threaded rod cut to the appropriate length, climbs back up on the ladder, and maneuvers the rod around the mechanical trades until the rod is placed within the head of the anchor. The installer then proceeds to repeat the entire process for the next rod. This continuous need to maneuver around the mechanical trades, coupled with the need to climb up and down a ladder several times, consumes a large amount of time, money and energy.